You Are Not An Adult

Message to middle school - high school students
You are children. End of story. Accept it, it only happens once. Being a real adult involves buying things for yourself, not with mommy and daddy's money, but with your own money you get from having a job. It involves bills and that horrible realization that maybe you can't buy that pair of jeans this month and sure as hell can't afford that new video game you've been obsessively watching the trailers for. It means you have to figure out your own cellphone. Sometimes it means that you eat a lot of pop-tarts and ramen noodles because you can't afford anything else. It means you are responsible for yourself, your clothes, the roof over your head and the food in your belly. It means that when you do wrong, they don't call your parents, they call the police. If you do none of these things and your parents are responsible for you and you are still between the ages of one and eighteen, you are a CHILD. Congratulations. I'm a bit envious.

Furthermore, having sex and getting pregnant does not make you an adult. It does not make you better or important. And it sure as hell does not make you a parent. Rude awakening: being a parent and being an adult are not things you simply are based on age, proclamation, smoking and drinking, giving birth, or donating sperm. Being either are based on your actions. Parenting is accepting that some of the things you like to do, like partying and dating every other guy or girl, are not going to be your regular routine anymore. It's coming to the disturbing realization that your life is no longer purely about you, but the child you decided you were old enough to have. I am not sitting here saying don't have sex. It's unrealistic to expect you not to and I'm a realist of sorts, however, I ask that you accept the consequences of your choices. You want to have sex? Accept that you might have to put your life on hold to take responsibility for a child. A child is not "not a big deal" it is a big deal. It means that who your kid grows up to be is in your hands. If they are a jackass, you did that, that's your fault.

You shouldn't be having kids anyway. As I've stated before, you are too young to realize that the limitations and rules placed on you are beneficial to your development and not some form of cruel torture there to prevent you from happiness. Consequences and rules are things you need to learn. Adults aren't setting out to ruin your life, but prepare you for it. Maybe you don't like a curfew, well tough, you are too young to be out in the middle of the night running around. It might not sound like a big deal, but if you were allowed to do whatever you want at a young age you wouldn't develop the skills needed to know how to judge between doing what you want and what you should in the future when those decisions truly matter. The things you do now will not have the same consequences when you're older, they'll be worse. So you should be thanking the people that acctually give a crap about your future. If they didn't care they wouldn't set up rules or punishments.

And any parents that believe in the no punishments raising technique... Seriously? Seriously now? I know that parents don't like it when their kids 'hate' them, but that's a part of being a parent to. Trust me, they'll get over it.